The Timeliner Maxi is a whopping 8 page letter/A4 story planner to organize all scenes of your story. See it as your story whiteboard or clothesline on which to hang, attach or lay out scene index cards or idea post-its. For iWork owners it even becomes a digital whiteboards offering the functionality of some of the expensive writer's software out there, at about half the cost. And yes, there is a Timeliner Mini. Check it out when you first want to create the basic backbone of your story.

Who should get this chart?

Anyone who has already come up with a story idea for a movie or novel and needs a place to create and organize the scenes. If you've been sitting too long in front of a pile of index cards that keep changing places in your story, this chart is for you.

What's on this chart?

Hold all 8 pages in landscape format next to each other and you'll get a huge timeline with all the popular story structure models laid out on a 3 and 4 act scale. This is what you have on each one of the 8 pages:

At the top you'll also find space to write down title, version and date. Right next to it there are slots for entering your characters. A gray help text gives you a first starting point, naming the first 5 characters as Hero, Opponent, Love Interest, Mentor and Sidekick. Enter up to 12 characters here, or leave blank for now and fill out later. At the bottom, there's a collection of a broad variety of techniques, tips and tricks on what one should put into the different section of a story. And behind the movie time scale, gray bars indicate story tension curve with two peaks.

How is the story divided onto the 8 pages?

Each page holds distinct sections of the story models, so that there are no uncomfortable cuts in the middle of story structure units across the different pages. This sequences method is used by many screenwriters, because it cut the entire story into 8 manageable chunks. Act 1 and Act 3 each have two sections, Act 2 has four. That splits a 120 minute screenplay, for example, into 8 approximately 15-page sections, each with its own conflict and resolution arch as a mini story within the big story, taking the dread out of writing a 100+ page script or a 80.000+ word novel. Now you can tackle the task page by page.

How do I use this chart in my everyday writing?

Use this chart as you would any cork board or whiteboard on which to pin your story index cards or idea post-its. The right moment to use this chart would be between coming up with the general idea (have you checked out the Timeliner Mini?) and writing the actual script or novel. To begin, you can either print the 8 pages on letter or A4 paper and hang them on a wall, then add your postits or index cards, or you can open them as PDF on your laptop and start entering scene ideas electronically.

If you've already started writing, but you find that you keep changing the structure as you go, step back a moment, organize your scenes on this chart first, then continue the writing. The 8 sheets allow you to actually 'see' your story before you write it out. Easily compare, if first and last scene are opposite enough, or if the story arc and section arcs work, or if all scenes show the change before actually writing them.

Should I know the archetype models in this chart?

Yes. You can read a lot out of this chart right from the start, but not everything can be understood without background knowledge about the models. If you want to read further: Most of the experts who's models are features on the chart have written books available on Amazon and other major book stores, so it would probably be a good idea to get some of the books to enable you to fully extract and make use of the compressed knowledge on this chart.

How accurate is this?

In terms of storytelling structure Truby’s „The Anatomy of Story” and Vogler’s „The Writer’s Journey” seem to be more accurate than others, therefore their story structure models appear on the chart as a general backbone on which to align your story, but they can potentially be exchanged with any of the other existing structures out there. This chart simply provides a frame and a grid on which to align your imagination. It gives writers and designers one more tool besides talent and intuition to create a compelling story faster and easer than without it.

What are these color bars?

Please visit the cartafina  storymeter page for an overview on the color bars. All cartafina charts are related and can be used in combination with each another.

Is this your opinion?

No. While this kind of work cannot be accomplished without some form of generalization in closing logical gaps or pinning down the position of elements, it is generally just based on the facts at hand. It simply connects the dots. An insane amount of hours has flown into creating this overview and trying to make it as general as possible and now it should be pretty accurate as a general reference on which to align and straighten your story while still leaving enough room to let your tory flow in its own, unique way. You can let it break out of the frame any time you want, but when it happens, you'll know and you can break the rule consciously and with good reason.

Who created this?

Petra from cartafina. Petra is an Information Architect and Interaction Designer who helps large companies create valuable customer experiences on the web. With this chart her goal is to make complex information accessible and understandable for creative people so they can make fast, informed decisions. This chart wants to take some of the planning difficulty out of people's writing project so they can focus more on the creation and less on the organisation of information.

Can I print this chart?

Yes. Iti fits on 8 „Letter” (US) or „A4” (Europe) size pieces of papes where it is readable with regular eyesight. It is created in vector format, so you can scale it up (or down) to any other paper size without loss of quality. The chart comes in two formats: a PDF to carry around with you on any digital device that can display PDFs, and a 'Pages 09' document (see Apple's iWork 09 for more information).

Attention Windows users: unfortunately there is no software at the moment that would allow the moving of text boxes as it is possible with Apple's 'Pages 09' software. But you can still make good use of the PDF, both as electronic form or as printout. A PC version will be added as soon as the needed functionality is supported.

For the greatest aha effect use this chart together with the moviemeter, novelmeter and/or  storymeter.

Can I edit the charts?

Yes, you can edit both the PDF and the Pages document. You can open the PDF in a layout application, edit it, write on top of it or copy the text and graphics and use them in your own artwork. With the Pages document, you can edit, move, fill or delete the text boxes. The only requirement with all forms of editing the charts would be that whatever you do with them adheres to our terms and conditions outlined in the disclaimer.

Can I duplicate and / or distribute this chart?

Duplicate yes, distribute no. Make as many digital copies or printouts for your own personal use as you like, but distributing or selling it is not the cartafina way of doing things. The price of each chart is roughly that of a restaurant visit (sometimes even less) but a cartafina charts should have plenty more satisfaction value for years to come. So please encourage your friends to get their own copies. That way they will also become official members of the cartafina clan entitling them to free updates and other member benefits. (Read our disclaimer for more information.)

Will this chart be updated from time to time?

Yes. The chart started with version 1.0. We are currently at 1.1. which corrects some misspellings. Buyers of this chart will automatically get the latest version. If small corrections or updates are made, cartafina will send an updated charts to all previous buyers of this chart free of charge. (please allow 1-2 weeks for this to happen. There is that day job.) And just as with updates of software, big changes or additions will require a new purchase or an upgrade fee. If you bought this chart at some point in the past, come back to this page from time to time to see the latest version.

What do I get when I buy this?

You get two documents: an 8-pagePDF document (about 3.3 MB) and an 8-page 'Pages' document (about 5 MB), inside a ZIP (of about 6.3 MB) which you can download immediately after your payment. The PDF can be opened on any computer or digital device that has the free Adobe Acrobat Reader installed. (On the Mac, you can also use the pre-installed Preview) . The 'Pages 09' document can be opened on any Mac that has the Apple software iWork 09 installed. If you have a PC and can't install iWork 09, the PDF should still be useful either as a digital form or as a printout, even if you can't move the text boxes around. Instead you can load the document into Word or any layout software and add you own text boxes. Both, the PDF and the Pages 09 document fit on letter or A4 paper and can be scaled up or down for printout on larger or smaller paper.

Got an unanswered question? Mail it or proceed to yet another add-to-cart opportunity:

Writer's quotes on how they outline a story

Here is an excerpt of the collection of story outlining methods that was done while preparing this chart.

 Scott Myers

"After I’ve written all the beats, scenes, and dynamics onto individual cards, I divide them into three stacks: Act I, Act II, and Act III. I’ve been writing for so long now, I generally have a pretty good idea into which stack each card will go. Along the way, I take special care to see if I can find The Four Major Plot Points (beginning, end of Act I, end of Act II, ending). With SNOWBIRDS, I knew those four from Day 2 in the process. While a bunch of other things changed, those four beats were immutable – they just felt absolutely rock solid from early on."

 Ernest Lehman

"Usually I do some sort of outline for myself. Sometimes I write a long treatment before going into the screenplay. Quite often I take filing cards and I write out a scene on each one. I tack them up on a wall and step back and sort of look at the movie. I may notice that I've got twenty-four cards in act one and six cards in act two and fifteen in act three, and I realize that something is a little out of balance. Sometimes I take a card and say, 'Wait a minute, this scene would be better over here.' I just move the cards around. it's a way of getting a visual look at a film when I don't even have a film. It has always helped me to use these cards."

 Paul Schrader

"I outline and then re-outline. On this one I went right from the outline to the script. But usually, if I have any concerns about whether the idea is really going to work, I then go into a sequential breakdown. All a sequential breakdown is.... let's say in an average movie there are anywhere 45 - 55 - 60 things happening. That's your outline, the list of things that happen. That's not the list of shots, or the list of scenes and drive-ups, just the things that happen. Like, they meet at the Chelsea Hotel, returns to office, make phone calls, whatever. So you take each one of those items on your outline and make it into a paragraph. So now you're starting to include dialogue. So now, instead of a one page outline, you have about a 15 page, single-spaced breakdown. And if your idea still survives all of that, then there's a pretty good chance it ll work. I've had idea that have worked at an outline stage, but died at the breakdown stage. And when an idea dies on you it is, in fact, one of the best things that can happen. Because you've just saved yourself an enormous amount of time and grief. Some ideas just don t want to be written. They don t want to be written by you. Some ideas have fooled you into thinking that they have more power than they, in fact, do. If you find that out after writing a first draft, you ve wasted a lot of time and you've also lost faith in yourself because you believed in something and you couldn't pull it off."

 Rebecca Shonnenshine

"I believe in outlining and careful preparation – but that’s very much in line with my personality. Outlining is not the fun part of writing a script – it’s the heavy lifting. My process goes something like this: I have an idea, I write a bunch of notes and decide if it’s a movie or not. I do a loose outline of scenes, then I try and structure it with index cards on the wall. From those cards, I write a detailed outline. Rearrange the index cards. Rewrite the outline. And then I’m ready to write the script. If it’s an assignment, then I usually have to write a treatment from the outline before I can go forward with the script. I think everyone has to experiment and come up with their own process. When I was first starting out, I’d always think, “I don’t know how to write a script!” and crack out all the screenwriting books. Now I have a method that works for me."

 Simon Kinberg

"I outline like crazy. Writing would be too daunting to me without an outline. I need the blueprint before I start building. In some ways, the vast majority of the actual writing takes place in the outlining phase for me. I’m finding the architecture of the movie, but also the architecture of sequences and scenes, so I know how the central characters, relationships, and storylines evolve. There are still plenty of surprises along the way, but they tend to be happier surprises. If I’m working on a movie with multiple storylines (like an X-Men movie or something like Fantastic Four that has four evenly balanced heroes), I create outlines for each story. Then I mix and merge them together before fading in."

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Cartafina is Petra's Information Architecture Store. Petra is an Information Architect and Interaction Designer who helps large companies create valuable customer experiences on the web. Petra is passionate about finding and telling the magical story around a product or service and offering simple solutions to complex navigational problems. Contact herfor employment or project inquiries.

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